Momentum (26 page)

“Trina, you know that I’m in no position to make such promises. Like you said, I’m practically exiled myself. I have no power.”

“Tish tosh, you are Spencer Darley’s only son! Make the promise. Spencer will honor it; I’m sure of that,” she said defiantly.

“Do it, Rupert,” Constance commanded, her face rigid.

He nodded. “Okay, you have my word that I will ask my father to give you your job back. The rest is in his hands.”

“Your word? Given in front of all these people… I guess that will have to do. All righty then, I need something to write on so I can start making the list.”

Constance pointed toward the hallway “Let’s go into my study. I have everything you need there. Plus it’s quiet, so you’ll be able to concentrate better. I’ll be right back.” She threw us a look and led Trina out of the room.

I could feel the air get lighter, and everyone looked at each other and breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“Dad, who was that? And what’s the prince stuff all about?”

“I’ll explain later,” he said curtly. Dad seemed different. He was suddenly very alert, and very on edge. I could almost feel the energy emanating from him. He was in control and ready for action.

“As soon as Constance comes back, we need to mobilize all the resources we have. And by resources, I primarily mean all the Wanderers we can get hold of. Do we know if any of the Sigma-Ws are still watching Olivia?”

“I don’t know, Rupert,” Constance replied, joining us again. “We have no way of contacting anyone to find out.”

“In that case, can we send Grayson over to watch her for now?”

“That sounds like a good idea. Morena, could you get your brother on that, then come back here?”

She nodded and left silently.

“Who else can we get to help us out?”

“I’ll have Inez and David come back.”

“What about Ella? Who’ll look after her?” Dad’s face softened just for a second.

“She’ll be fine with Kevin,” Constance assured him.

“What about Sophie and Dan?”

“Kevin transported Sophie and Dan through the portal, so that dimension is now secure from them.”

“Unless the Sigma-W-Pi transport them back,” Dad added. “I don’t want to leave Ella over there without proper protection, and I don’t feel Kevin will be up to it. So, please ask Inez to bring her back. It’s not ideal to have her with us, but at least we can keep her safe.”

“Okay.” I could see the uncertainty in her eyes, but she seemed resigned to following Dad’s requests–or orders.
 
“Let’s take a breather, just for a second, to make sure that we’re all on the same page.”

Dad’s jaws moved in dissatisfaction. He must have, like me, wanted to get on with things, but Constance was right, we had to have a plan. He nodded, sighing as he sat down. “You’re right. We should probably wait until everyone gets here before we plan a strategy.”

“Yes. I’ve messaged Inez to come back. She and David should arrive any moment.”

I looked at her and blinked in bewilderment. “What? How? They’re in the other dimension. How did you message them? You didn’t even leave the room.”

“I’m able to deliver messages to Inez directly,” Constance said flatly, as if it made total sense.

It didn’t, of course. “Like telepathically?” I tried not to sound too skeptical, not that I really knew what
telepathically
even meant.

“Yes, by thought transference.”

“So you can have a whole conversation that way?”

“No. It’s very vague, especially across dimensions. However, I’m able to convey to her that I need them all to come back.”

“Poppet.”

“Dad! Arizona!” Ella spluttered and leaped from David’s arms into Dad’s.

David, Inez, and Ella had arrived behind me so quietly that I didn’t even notice. It was unsettling, but I was happy to see them. David put his arms around me and drew me in for a hug.

“How’s your dad, David?”

“He’s okay. Shaken mostly. He was badly bruised during his run in with Dan and Sophie. The worst is around his mouth where they used duct tape to keep him from talking. He’s in a lot of pain; the painkillers aren’t helping much,” he whispered in a hushed voice so Ella couldn’t hear.

“Was he okay being left on his own?”

“I’m not so sure.” David shuffled uneasily. “He said he was, but you know…. Anyway, we’ve got stuff to do.” He looked over at Dad gravely.

“We do,” Dad agreed. “Ella, hon, we need some private time, so do you think you’ll be okay watching some television for a while, or reading a book?”

“Look, Ella. You can borrow this book; it’s called
Candy Wars
. My niece left it here the last time she visited. She said it was really good.”

Beaming at Constance, Ella took the book. The blue cover with the fairy and luminous green monster certainly looked fun. She couldn’t wait to look inside it, flipping through the pages as she followed Morgana out toward the family room.

Once Morgana was back, we looked at Dad, waiting for him to begin. He sounded grave. “We’re still missing Larry and Lars. Could you try contacting Lars, Constance?”

She picked up her cell phone–no thought transference this time, I guessed–and called him. I could tell that the news wasn’t good by the look of disappointment on her face.

“He went by Larry’s house. There’s no one home, apart from their housekeeper, Anna, who hasn’t seen him in days. So, Lars drove over to Ames. Larry wasn’t in his office or anywhere else Lars was able to look. His car is, however, parked outside. So, my guess is that he’s down in the October Project wing. Lars doesn’t have clearance to get down there,” she said, looking helpless. “Any ideas?”

Dad shook his head. “As far as I know, only Olivia and Larry have access to that part of Ames. And Kevin at the other end. So, we’ve no way of getting in there now. Do we have a reason to worry?”

“Well, yes.” Inez shuffled her feet. “If Kevin transported Sophie and Dan…” She threw her hands in the air.

“They could have bumped into Larry,” Dad completed her sentence, his face turning hard again.

“I can get into the hangar,” Morgana suddenly interjected. “I didn’t want to say anything before, but Larry set the iris scanner to allow the doors to open for me in case of an emergency. And it looks like this may be one.” She got up. “How will I get in? To the main building, I mean. I don’t have an ID.”

Dad got up. “I’ll come with you; the staff knows me.”

“Dad? I want to come, too. Please? We could pretend that we need to pick up some of Mom’s stuff from her office. I go over there all the time; they won’t think anything of it.” The last thing I wanted to do was hang around here and wait.

“Can I come as well?” David asked.

“No. That’ll just look too suspicious. The two of us visit Olivia’s office all the time, but it’s going to be hard enough getting Morgana in.”

David’s eyes clouded over in disappointment. I was tempted to stay with him, but I needed to
do
something.

We arrived at the main Ames entrance twenty minutes later. I had practically grown up in this building; I had spent hours doing my homework in Mom’s office while she finished work. I knew every nook and cranny like the back of my hand. Ella and I loved playing hide and seek in the hallways and, although some of the more grouchy security guards frowned on it, most of them had grown used to us over the years and even joined in from time to time. We dropped Morgana off at the delivery entrance thinking it would be easier to let her into the building there. Then we made our way to the main entrance.

Jackson, the security guard, flashed us a smile as he opened the door. Then his expression turned somber. “Mr. Darley, I was so sorry to hear about Dr. Darley’s accident. How is she doing?”

“She’s still in a coma, but her swelling is subsiding.”

“How long do you think she’ll be in the coma? When will she be back?”

“We’re not sure yet. It may be a while, which is why we need to get up to her office to get a few things.”

“Sure. Do you need me to let you in?”

“I’ve got Olivia’s keys, but could you give us some passes in case we need them?”

“You won’t, but here you go.” He handed Dad and me one each. “How are you holding up, Arizona?”

I nodded somberly. “All right.”

“What about Ella?”

“She’s fine, worried about Mom, of course.”

“Of course. I’ll let you be on your way then, just call me if you need anything.”

“Thanks, Jackson,” we said in unison, and then made our way toward the elevator banks. We walked in silence, not stopping at the elevator, but walking past it toward the stairwell. Then we went down a flight and walked to the delivery entrance. Dad swiped Mom’s pass through the keypad and the door clicked, allowing us to open it and slip Morgana through. Thankfully, being a Sunday, the corridors were empty. We hurried along to the back elevators, which took us to the October Project section of the building. Morgana put her eye to the iris reader by the OP elevator, and then again to the reader beside a set of doors.

I had never been to this part of Ames before. I gasped as I entered the ginormous hangar space. “Dad, what is this?”

“This is where the portal is,” Dad explained. “It’s a–”

He stopped when Morgana let out a high-pitched wail.

We both gawked at her, then turned to look at what she was flailing her arm at. I couldn’t see a thing at first, but when I squinted, I could make out what looked like an arm lying on the floor in the distance. Dad and Morgana were already running toward it, so I followed on their heels, almost crashing into Morgana as she came to an abrupt stop right in front of me. She knelt on the floor, and began sobbing. I bent over her to see. The arm belonged to Kellan’s dad; the rest of his body was hidden behind a metal desk. I followed Dad around the desk until we could get to Dr. Fox. He looked dead.

M
y stomach heaved as I struggled to look at Kellan’s dad. His face was ashen and withered. Even through the ghastly mask, I could see his strong resemblance to Kellan. Was Kellan lying somewhere in this same state? The image made me gag, and I wildly looked around for a garbage can. Spotting one in the corner, I rushed to it and yanked off the lid to deposit the contents of my throbbing stomach into it. Then I stood back up, feeling faint and cold, so cold goosebumps formed over the length of my arms.